LAHORE: An accountability court on Wednesday recorded statements of two more prosecution witnesses in the money laundering and illegal assets reference against the family of Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif.

During the hearing, Shehbaz, who is also PML-N president, referred to the proceedings before a court of London on his suit against a journalist of Daily Mail for leveling “false” allegations of money laundering. He claimed that the lawyer of the British newspaper admitted before the court that they had no evidence to support the allegations against him.

Presiding Judge Jawadul Hassan asked Shehbaz to leave aside whatever the British newspaper said as the lawyer of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) claimed to have “strong evidence” against him.

Shehbaz reiterated that he would quit politics and go home if corruption of a single penny was proved against him.

The bureau’s prosecutor raised an objection and said Shehbaz was trying to waste the court’s precious time.

The judge advised Shehbaz to file an acquittal application if he thought the findings of the London’s court could support him in the instant case.

The judge adjourned further hearing till Feb 17 and directed the NAB to present more witnesses for their testimony.

After the hearing, the jail officials took Shehbaz and his son Hamza back to Kot Lakhpat jail.

Earlier, Shehbaz had a conversation on a mobile phone with his elder brother and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his (Shehbaz’s) son Suleman, both living in London.

Shehbaz’s son Suleman, daughter Rabia Imran and son-in-law Haroon Yousaf had been declared absconders in the reference for avoiding appearance in the proceedings. His wife Nusrat obtained a stay order from the Lahore High Court against the proceedings to declare her an absconder.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2021